Another brand-defining, Best Drama Emmy-winning HBO series is coming to an end this Sunday when Succession airs its finale. Just like when esteemed predecessors The Sopranos and Game Of Thrones ended, there are the inevitable, er, succession questions facing the Warner Bros Discovery network.
This time, HBO’s bench is stacked with strong reinforcements in freshmen The Last Of Us and House of the Dragon and sophomore The White Lotus. The field could produce HBO’s strongest Emmy showing ever in the drama categories with four major Outstanding Drama Series contenders.
All of the series are overseen by HBO’s head of drama, Francesca Orsi, a 20-year network veteran and one of the top lieutenants of HBO & HBO Max Content Chairman and CEO Casey Bloys.
In a wide-ranging, “State of the HBO Drama” interview, Orsi, who last year extended her contract to continue as EVP, HBO Programming, Head of HBO Drama Series and Films through 2026, provided newsy updates about the aforementioned shows as well as Perry Mason, Winning Time, Gilded Age and The Hedge Knight. She also talked about the network’s renewal criteria and development strategy and shared the serendipitous story of how she landed at HBO in 2003. >>>Read The Q&A |
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Splashy Previews - Sources tell Deadline that Disney’s Rob Marshall-directed The Little Mermaid is singing some high notes with $10M+ in Thursday night previews. Should that figure exceed $10.8M, it would rep the 6th highest preview performance ever among PG- and G-rated releases. >>>4-Day Projection
'Four Weddings' Called Off - The UK's Channel Four has abruptly cancelled its Four Weddings reboot. The move is prompting industry speculation about the state of the network’s finances amidst declining ad revenues and an economic downturn. >>>Production Team Blindsided
It Starts On The Page - Deadline’s latest edition of It Starts on the Page features 10 standout drama series scripts in 2023 Emmy contention. It showcases the critical role writer’s work plays in a show’s success. All materials (the script and writers intro) were submitted before the WGA strike began on May 2. Today's script is “The Piggyback” from Stranger Things, with an introduction from the Duffer Brothers. >>> Read The Script
Outfest Online - Outfest has today unveiled the lineup for the third edition of its LGBTQ+ TV festival Outfronts, a four-day virtual gathering to take place this year from June 2-5. The lineup for the festival, aiming to highlight the diverse representation of LGBTQ+ characters on screen, includes panels with the stars of Fox’s 9-1-1: Lone Star, Max’s Our Flag Means Death and Prime Video’s With Love. >>> Rest Of Slate |
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Chinese actress Zhou Dongyu, who is in Cannes with Anthony Chen’s Un Certain Regard title The Breaking Ice, has had a fairytale career trajectory. Although she had no desire to act, she was plucked from obscurity by Zhang Yimou when still a high school student in 2010, and became one of China’s most respected young actresses, with a string of award-winning films. She agreed to star in The Breaking Ice as soon as Chen called her and before he’d even written the script. Critics are lauding the film as an intimate portrait of China’s Gen-Z, who often appear adrift and disappointed by life, especially when compared to the economic boom times enjoyed by the previous generation. >>> Read The Interview |
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Exclusive Euphoria's Hunter Schafer has closed a deal to star opposite Academy Award winner Anne Hathaway and Emmy winner Michaela Coel in Mother Mary, the pop music pic marking writer-director David Lowery’s third for A24 following The Green Knight and A Ghost Story. |
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More News
📺 The UK’s reality television drought has put nearly half of freelance unscripted producers out of work, according to a snap survey by trade union Bectu. Amid a commissioning slowdown, Bectu polled 1,908 of its members and found 45% were out of work. A further 75% said they were struggling to make ends meet. The findings support Bectu’s decision last week to declare an “emergency” in unscripted television due to an “unprecedented” lack of work.
📡 DirecTV, which held the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket for nearly three decades until YouTube took over the package, has struck a deal to continue distributing it to bars, restaurants and other commercial businesses. The arrangement begins with the upcoming NFL season.
💰 National Amusements, the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global run by Shari Redstone, has received a $125 million preferred equity investment from BDT Capital Partners. The infusion is meant to help the company weather a difficult stock market environment as Wall Street has looked skeptically at Paramount’s spending on streaming in recent months.
🏆 Jesse Collins Entertainment has come on board as producer of this year’s Emmy Awards on Monday, September 18 on Fox. Jesse Collins, Dionne Harmon and Jeannae Rouzan-Clay will serve as executive producers. JCE takes over producing duties from Reginald Hudlin and Done+Dusted, who jointly produced the ceremony in 2020, 2021 and 2022. |
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Trending  Lionsgate’s release of John Wick: Chapter 4 and record revenue from the company’s 18,000-title film and TV library helped the company post fiscal fourth-quarter results ahead of Wall Street analysts' expectations.
🔻 Stating that the $100 million action against Paramount Pictures brought by Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting contains a “gross mischaracterization” of the bedroom scenes in question from Franco Zeffirelli's Oscar-nominated 1968 adaptation of Romeo & Juliet, and citing the First Amendment, Judge Alison Mackenzie put forth a tentative ruling to dismiss the case. |
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Obituaries
🕯 Samantha Weinstein, a Canadian actor who appeared in the 2013 remake of Stephen King’s Carrie starring Chloë Grace Moretz, died May 14 at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto after being diagnosed in 2021 with a rare form of ovarian cancer. She was 28. 🕯 Ed Ames , whose long career included hit recordings, TV stardom, and Broadway roles, died May 21 in Los Angeles at 95. No cause was given. Ames charted with “Who Will Answer?,” “My Cup Runneth Over” and “Try to Remember.” Television later came calling, and Ames – although of Russian-Jewish heritage – was picked to play the Cherokee “Mingo” on the Fess Parker TV vehicle, Daniel Boone. 🕯 Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: A Photo Gallery |
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On the Radar
Sat - Palme d'or ceremony in Cannes
Sun - Succession series finale
Mon - Memorial Day
Tue - Gay Days start at Disney World
Thu - NBA Finals begin; Netflix annual shareholder meeting; Trump Town Hall on Fox |
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Ken I Come, Too? - Margot Robbie‘s Barbie is going to the real world, even if it’s against her will. In the first full trailer for Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Barbie movie, released on Thursday, every day seems to be the best day ever in Barbie Land. Until it isn’t. She eventually learns she’ll need to travel to the real world to “know the truth about the universe.” On her way, she realizes that Ryan Gosling’s Ken is a stowaway. |
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